Dark Souls 3 Guide: How to Upgrade Estus Flask

Dark Souls 3 is a tough game, but one thing can make it a little bit easier. The ever-present Estus Flask, an item that will refill your health by a significant amount, and is reusable, as long as you have recently visited a bonfire. You start the game with three uses of the Estus Flask, and can split them between refilling your health, or your FP, or magic points. However, as the game progresses, you can upgrade your Estus Flask, so that you can use it many more times. But the process isn’t fully explained to players, so here is our guide on how to upgrade the Estus Flask in Dark Souls 3.

First off, to actually upgrade it, you need to find a very special item. Estus Shards can be found throughout Dark Souls 3. I won’t list out exact locations, because I don’t have a full list handy, but check back for updates as I’ll throw some in as they are discovered and proven to be definite Estus Shard spawns. Anyway, once you find an Estus Shard while playing through Dark Souls 3, you are all set to upgrade your Estus Flask, but how do you do it, and where?

Head back to the Firelink Shrine and go to the Black Smith. That’s the big dude, hitting the anvil with the hammer. Speak with him and the option will come up to upgrade Estus Flask. Give him the Estus Shard and he’ll give you an additional use of your Estus Flask. Speak with him some more and you can allocate which Estus Flask gets how many uses. So, if you do more combat, you can put all of your uses into the normal Estus Flask. If you use more magic, you can put more into the blue, Ashen Estus Flask, which refills your FP.

That’s it as far as upgrading your Estus Flask in Dark Souls 3 goes. Check out our other guides for more info on all things Dark Souls 3.